Thanks for this thread, Bezzle. This is getting seriously scary for a lotta folks. A dam failure would be catastrophic, and you certainly can't discount the possibility of multiple failures at this point. Damn that's a lot of water!

Ihsmta,

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Pay attention to Dakota Dunes in South Dakota on the north side of the Missouri just north of Sioux City. This is an entirely new developement/municipality built for the specific purpose of luring Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska corporate headquarters and high net worth individuals to a no income tax state.

The operative words being "entirely new developement/municipality".

Translation: All the good dry 'high ground' has already been built on - so use this here plot of land that no one of any sense would build on before. You can charge outrageous fees for it!!!!

By the way, if you are shopping for homes in Florida, stay away from communities or developments that are less than 10 years old ~ ~ for the same reason: SWAMPLAND.

+ + + + + +

Wyocowboy,

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This will be spun that it is "good for the economy" as the rebuilding begins. Print the money, give it away to the flooded and all will be well again.

"good for the economy" that is, until FEMA comes swooping a year or so later to take all that money back ~ AFTER you have spent it....

TN - http://www.newschannel5.com/story/146820....
"Nashville, Tenn. - FEMA admits it made a massive mistake in distributing disaster assistance money. Now, local flood victims are paying for it.

The government agency recently mailed out letters to hundreds of people right here in Middle Tennessee. The letters demand immediate re-payment of relief money doled out during last year's floods."

LA - http://clutchmagonline.com/2011/06/fema-....
"After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, many uttered the acronym “FEMA” as if it was a curse word. Now, six years later the Federal Emergency Management Agency, blamed for it’s slow response to the storm, is telling victims to pay up.

According to The Associated Press, FEMA has so far sent out letters to thousands of residents seeking to reclaim over $22 million dollars. In the letters individuals are told they have at least 30 days to pay back money, appeal FEMA’s demand, compromise or to apply for a hardship waiver. The letters, which have infuriate many survivors, are the result of an internal effort to recoup aid the agency gave to victims of Katrina and other hurricanes during the 2005 season."

The BROKEN 'Broken Window' theory in practice.

....shovel ready jobs.

Finally.

If you've ever been next to the discharge chute at a dam pouring it out "full-throat", the noise and vibration are incredible -- it's like being in a continuous magnitude 3 or 4 earthquake.

(Believe me: the corp is aware of what a sustained period of shaking can do to settle earth.)

What is happening to the Mississippi? I remember reading that there was concern that the main channel would jump to another river(unpronounceable name)to the west in Louisiana bypassing the port.

Watching in awe from the headwaters, and thinking of turning on my sprinklers even though I won't need 'em for another 3 weeks. Anything to help slow the tide now that the temps are heating up. As someone else mentioned, there is still a ****load of snow in the high country.

Folks in the Delta and Cajun country better be watching out for Part Deux.

Yikes Bezzle, they want to keep it full throttle for months. I think the question of these old structures being able to handle that much continuous load is very serious.

I've seen what a busted 4" water main will do to a highway. If the face of the dam chips away even a small patch with that kind of water pressure it will eat through the whole structure in minutes.

Doesn't SAC have a lot of missile silos in the flood areas?

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Doesn't SAC have a lot of missile silos in the flood areas?

No problem. Just launch them. I'm sure we can find somebody we don't like to receive them.

Quote:

No problem. Just launch them.

Don't know if they could be launched. If water rushed in quickly enough when the tops popped, would they still get a burn? Different technology than submarine launched missiles.

The headwaters of the Missouri in Montana and Wyoming have basically not hardly started to melt RECORD snow packs. Starting just today to get warm. Supposed to warm up into the 80's for the next week.

They're worried here about bridges and roads being wiped out. Our dams are safe as they have dumped out most of the water over the last month in anticipation of the record run off.

Some other parts of Wyoming and Montana have smaller dams on smaller creeks and rivers that are in danger, but not a lot of water in those and set up in such a way one would not have a domino effect if one busted.

Looks like the rodeo is about to begin in ND and below.

i drove down by the airport today near the river in omaha and the only words i have are "HOLY **** THAT WATER IS HIGH". I've known about the flooding (one of my boss's businesses is along the river) but DAMN.

and they're releasing more up by gavin's point dam in yankton...

needs to be said -- if one of those dams breaks upstream, they're ALL going down. All you can really do at this point is pray.

This was scary. This is now getting frightening.

http://leevalley.net/missouririverflood.....

friend of the family goes up in his plane by the river fairly often by tekemah nebraska.

<shunted to NotSoBreaking>


Oh, well, I guess it's over.

Can't believe that Japanese reactor is still in flames, though -- it's going on what, three months now?

</sarc>

Gavins point going to 160,000 on Thursday. The river here rose 1/2 foot today just from the rain we got last night. Not sure how much we got but we got dumped on. It rained more off and on today and is raining right now. Of concern also are all the rivers feeding into the Missouri locally that are getting extremely high.

http://www.kmeg14.com/story/14952268/gav....

Today's status at the dams: http://siouxlandflooding.com/

Levee breaks in Minot, ND, along tributary rivers.

Missouri flood now highest on record.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capi....

Historic flood overtopping levees in Minot, North Dakota
By Jason Samenow
Missouri River also reaching record levels

From the Mississippi River to the Missouri, river flooding has been relentless in 2011. Now, the Souris River, which curls from Canada through north central North Dakota back into Canada, is reaching levels never before witnessed. The National Weather Service says the local emergency operations center has reported levees beginning to be overtopped in parts of Minot.

In response, NWS issued a flash flood warning at 9:41 central time for Minot, urging residents to “move quickly” away from evacuation zones. Eleven thousand residents have been told to leave according to reports.

On its Facebook page this morning, NWS posted the following about Minot’s levees:

Levee protection in the city of Minot averages a height of 1,558 feet, with some low spots between 1,556 and 1,558 feet. Based on no additional rainfall, no unexpected changes in upstream releases, and no unforeseen breaches or failures of levees, the current forecast suggests the 1,556 foot level will be reached sometime this afternoon and that the record level of 1,558 feet will be broken, fully overtopping the levees by Thursday morning.

On Wunderground, meteorologist/blogger Jeff Masters said this is a “1-in-100 to 1-in-200 year flood”, describing the following the factors which are leading to the historic river levels:

Massive rainfall in Canada on Sunday and Monday, combined with very heavy rainfall and snow melt over North Dakota over the past month, are responsible for the record flood. The Souris River Basin near the Rafferty Dam in Saskatchewan received four to seven inches of rain Sunday into Monday. Flood heights along the Souris River near the Canadian border upstream from Minot are already almost a foot above the previous all-time highest mark, and all that water will arrive in Minot ...

Meanwhile, in the nearby Missouri River to the southwest, the National Weather Service reports more record flooding:

....in Williston, N.D., the Missouri River is at 30.6 feet, 2.5 feet above the previous record, with only 1.5 feet remaining before the levee protecting Williston becomes overtopped. The current forecast has the river cresting and falling to 30 feet by tomorrow afternoon.


Jarrett and Jessica Hunter watch the overflowing Missouri River that flooded Corning, Missouri. June 21, 2011. Some 300 residents of a northwest Missouri town were ordered to evacuate, because of two breaches in Missouri River levees and expectations that water will top secondary barriers, officials said on Tuesday. (DAVE KAUP - REUTERS) David Kroodsma of Climate Central wrote yesterday that the Missouri River is “currently above flood stage in every state that it passes through”. And the river may remain above flood stage through August.

In southeast Nebraska, following a flood record set in Brownville last weekend, the Associated Press reports two more Missouri River records were broken at Plattsmouth and Nebraska, topping 1993 levels.

More records may fall as the the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) increased the amount of water released from Gavins Point Dam in South Dakota yesterday by 10,000 cubic feet per second in an effort to control reservoir levels. This increase will lead to river stages rising 0.7 to 1 foot at Sioux City, Ia., to 0.3 to 0.4 of a foot from Omaha to Rulo, Neb. At St. Joseph, Mo., the river stage rise will be roughly 0.6 foot, and at Kansas City, the rise will be roughly 0.7 foot according to ACE.

The Omaha World-Herald reports approximately 110,000 acres of land are affected by the flood waters in Nebraska. In a a release yesterday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said flooded areas are expected to be inundated for several months.

The historic flooding currently underway in the north central U.S. was highlighted as a “high risk” by NOAA all the back in March when it issued its spring outlook.

Levee breaks = overtopping or actual destruction of levees??

The article seems to equate "breaks" with overtopping. Is this common terminology?

If a levee gets overtopped, the flow of water soon erodes it away. So they're pretty much the same thing when it comes down to it.

Quote:

This 72 hours that we are in right now with the 150,000 cubic feet per second is probably the most critical period," Bismarck Mayor John Warford told reporters on Monday morning.

Looks like they are doing a little better so far during that critical 72 hour period, which is only about 12 hours from being over.

Quote:

The Missouri River stage in Bismarck held relatively steady into Wednesday and at least for the time being, local officials are breathing a little easier.

At 3:15 Wednesday afternoon the river stage in Bismarck was at 18.88, 0.02 inches lower than the previous day.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/loca....

Gavins Point increases releases

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110621/NE....

Latest on flooding: June 23

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110623/NE....

Aerial view of Omaha from the north. This is worth seeing.

http://www.kfab.com/cc-common/gallery/ph....